Commercial Driving Licenses

Richard: Let’s talk about commercial drivers licenses, and how they can be by traffic citations and other driving offenses. A commercial driver’s license is called a CDL. What kinds of people have commercial drivers licenses?

Dale: It’s a specific endorsement that you get from the bureau of motor vehicles, and it allows you to drive a commercial motor vehicle, which is any vehicle over twenty-thousand five hundred pounds. All truck drivers have CDL’s, it’s required. It’s their license to earn a living, basically.

Richard: How about school bus drivers, taxi drivers, limos, and couriers?

Dale: Sometimes they will require you to have a CDL, even though the law might not require it, the employer may. A limousine, I believe, if it has over twelve people you have to have a chaperone license or a CDL.

Richard: Oh, Okay. So even a prior record of a speeding ticket, stop sign, or a failure to yield. Even minor things can hold you back from getting a CDL?

Dale: They won’t hold you back from getting a CDL, but they’ll hold you back from being employed. Which is just as bad.The employer will look at that record and say, “Hey, you’ve got two points on your driving record within the last year. That is unsatisfactory, we will not employee you.” Because the employer wants to get a premium insurance rate, the way they do that is they turn their records over of their drivers to the insurance company, and they save a lot of money.